


It's Only Teenage Wasteland

by Duganator01



Series: RWBY Oneshots [4]
Category: RWBY, Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Crossover, F/M, Gen, Stranger Things AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 08:07:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,629
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22453891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duganator01/pseuds/Duganator01
Summary: Sirens are wailing in the bowels that creepy laboratory in the woods, but the sleepy inhabitants of the town nestled in between the trees didn't know about that. They were far too busy with their own, ordinary lives to worry about the supernatural forces threatening their dimension at this very moment.It would be a shame if something happened that would make the two disparate worlds collide.
Relationships: Jaune Arc & Lie Ren & Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc/Weiss Schnee (One-Sided), Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie
Series: RWBY Oneshots [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1558006
Comments: 3
Kudos: 10





	It's Only Teenage Wasteland

**Author's Note:**

> Looking out a dirty old window  
> Down below the cars in the city go rushing by  
> I sit here alone and I wonder why

**Date: November 6th, 1983**

**Location: Beacon, Indiana**

It’s dark outside. Stars twinkle in the velvety black sky above the Beacon National Laboratory. A huge monolith of steel and concrete that sat in stark contrast to the sleepy forest surrounding it.

Crickets were chirping and hopping among the cars still parked in the lot. If they so chose, the insects could have peered through the wide glass door at the entrance to see the lights flickering wildly in the off-white lobby.

If the apparently extremely resourceful crickets had wiggled through the air vents to gain entrance to the lab, they would have found a twisting maze of doors and hallways, all lit only by the same madly flickering fluorescent lights. There were no people.

Deep in the bowels of the eerily empty lab is one such abandoned hallway. The air was heavy down there, and in the air hung a faint scent of chemicals or maybe...ozone? The hall splits, and twists, and turns, eventually leading to a heavy steel door. This door, like the others lining the hall, is rounded slightly and bolted to the wall. Like the doors in a submarine.

Or a bomb shelter.

With a crash a man burst through the door at the end of the hallway. The sound of numerous alarms blaring followed him out of the room and split the silence like a knife through butter. His lab coat billowed in the breeze left behind him as he sprinted down the dimly lit hallway.

The lights reflected dully off the linoleum under his feet as he ran. He glanced behind him to check if that...that  _ thing _ was following him. The hallway was blessedly empty, but this only set the man’s heart beating faster.

His breath was catching in his throat, and he skidded to a halt in front of the closed elevator doors. Before he’d even stopped, his hand was already battering the call button to the left of the doors. The clicking of the button mingled with the alarms that were still clamoring for attention and only served to increase his panicked need for the elevator to arrive.

A loud  _ bang _ echoed down the deserted hall behind the scientist, not unlike the one he’d made when he’d barged through the other door. The scientist’s head whipped around to stare, pupils blown wide, down the hall towards the distant sound. The man hadn’t thought it was possible for his heart to pound harder, but he’d learned stranger things today.

Things he’d gone his whole life without knowing, and that he would have gladly continued to not know.

He was still slamming down the button when the doors dinged open. They moved agonizingly slowly. He hopped from foot to foot, glanced over his shoulder one last time, and stumbled through the  _ finally _ open elevator doors.

When his instincts forced him to turn to face the open door of the elevator, the scientist felt a curl of anxiety-riddled relief settle in his stomach. The lights were flickering more than ever, the distant alarms had only gotten more frantic, and none of his coworkers had joined him in the elevator. However, the empty hall reassured him that the  _ thing _ hadn’t followed him.

It had torn Richardson apart.

He’d hated the guy, but still. It’d been tough to watch.

Overhead, the lights flashed fully off for a full second and when they turned on, he thought...he thought he saw a shape. Like a person standing there. But not like any person he’d ever seen working at the labs. There was something  _ wrong _ with that silhouette, but the brief glimpse he’d gotten of it hadn’t been enough to pin down what was wrong.

As if that shape wasn’t enough, there was a  _ noise.  _ There was...what the actual  _ hell _ was that noise?! It was deep, and fluttering, and high pitched. Like a growling stomach starved of food, and the chattering of a rabid squirrel all rolled into one. No creature he’d ever heard sounded like that, living or mechanical.

The relief he’d been feeling only moments before dissipated as quickly as water in the hot Indiana summer sun. Dread flooded his system as he slowly turned his face towards the ceiling of what he was rapidly realizing was a very small metal box.

A very small metal box with only one exit, and that one was closing.

Oh God...oh  _ God  _ its  _ face! _ Its face [REDACTED] and it lifted him into the air. He couldn’t tell if he was screaming or if it was screaming. It sunk its [REDACTED] into his chest. He could feel it [REDACTED]

It was [REDACTED]

It [RED ACT TE D]

[RE D A C

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Pop-up sprinklers watered the lawn of a large, lived-in looking house. They sounded remarkably like the thing from the elevator, but the accompanying sounds of the neighborhood displaced any further similarities.

Amber colored street lights hummed softly overhead, a dog barked in the distance, and across the street a car door slammed as someone returned from work. The Arc family station wagon was parked in the driveway, and a pair of bikes could be seen propped in the cluttered garage. One had streamers duct-taped to the handlebars and was covered in brightly coloured decals. The other was dark green, and it had a headlight attached to the front.

Neither of these bikes belonged to the residents of the house, or they would’ve joined the mass of bikes, skateboards, and scooters littering the garage.

With all the smaller vehicles filling the space, it was really no wonder that the car was in the driveway.

“I just...I dunno man.” Lie Ren didn’t even bother looking up from where he was working on homework at the careworn table in the Arc basement. Jaune has had this conversation with himself more times than Ren could count at this point. 

He’d learned somewhere in the middle of the sixth one that his friend didn’t need replies to any of his questions. Jaune was perfectly content with just rambling anxiously to himself.

His blonde friend was currently sprawled haphazardly on the couch across the room, lamenting his romantic life. Nora was very pointedly  _ not _ doing her homework for Goodwitch’s class, and she was instead opting to rummage through the cabinets in search of who knew what. Ren was writing...well, Ren was  _ attempting  _ to write an essay for Oobleck. 

This was proving difficult with Jaune meanderingly wistfully, and loudly, through all the reasons that Weiss Schnee was amazing. A list of reasons that he’d recited so many times in recent months that Ren had practically memorized it. Nora definitely had, as the past few times she’d perched just out of Jaune’s line of sight and mouthed the words along with him.

“I just don’t know what to do,” he complained, rolling off the couch onto the threadbare carpet with a soft  _ thump. _ Jaune clambered to his feet, flopped down in the chair across from Ren, and slumped dejectedly. “I’m completely head over heels for her,” he rested his face in one hand, “and she won’t even give me a chance.”

“What about Nikos?” Nora interjected, pushing Ren’s books away so she could perch on the table. Ren glared reproachfully at the redhead and pulled them back towards him.

“Nora, we’ve been over this already,” Jaune grumbled, rolling his eyes. “Me and Pyrrha are just friends.”

“Uh huh, sure,” she said, a cheshire cat grin stretching from ear to ear. Both of them ignored Ren as he absentmindedly corrected the blonde’s grammar. “But she totally likes you.”

“She does not.”

“Does too.”

Apparently Jaune had learned nothing from having siblings, because he immediately retorted, “Does not!” He stood, knocking over his chair, a blush rising on his cheeks.

“Does too! And you-” She jumped up as well, knocking books off the table to join the chair on the floor. The ginger jabbed Jaune in the chest. “-you like her, too!”

Jaune’s blush from before was nothing compared to the red spreading across his face now. “I- I do NOT like her!” he spluttered, his voice cracking and not helping his case.

“Yeah you do,” Nora grinned. “Look at how much you’re blushing, you totally like her!”

“I will have you know that I am blushing because you are embarrassing me, not because I like her,” Jaune retorted, dodging Ren as he crouched to retrieve his books from the floor. “Because I don’t. Like her. I don’t like her.”

Nora just raised an eyebrow, and her too-knowing grin grew somehow wider. Ren glanced up in time to hear Jaune say, “She just helps me with History, that’s all.” He also saw a tell-tale glint of mischief in Nora’s eyes, one that he recognized from years of friendship with the short hyperactive girl and had learned to steer clear of.

Jaune had just opened a metaphorical bees nest.

“Besides, I’ve got a crush on  _ Weiss _ .” The teen took special; care to emphasize the girl’s name. “So there’s no possible way I could have a crush on the really nice, pretty, friendly-” Nora was making no sign of interrupting him, a feat that Ren knew had to be taking all of her self control “-humble, pretty, popular,  _ pretty  _ girl who helps me with my History homework.”

Why the hell was Nora so smug looking all of a sudden?

“You sure you said ‘pretty’ enough times in your little spiel there, fearless leader?” she snarked, bouncing proudly on her heels in triumph. Upstairs Mr. Arc shouted something about the television not working, and the muffled yells of the numerous Arc daughters echoed down the stairwell into the basement below. 

Jaune was suddenly wishing with all his heart and soul that he could blink and be upstairs with them, away from this conversation.

“I didn’t say ‘pretty’ too many times, no way. Or- or at all, in fact!” He was backing away from Nora now, as if she might transform into a tiger or something and suddenly pounce. His face, while it had been bright red before, had now paled to the colour and consistency of old oatmeal. “We’re just friends. Right, Ren? Back me up here.”

“I wasn’t really paying attention, but by my count,” Ren looked up at him over his glasses, a sly look gracing his impassive features, “You did call her ‘pretty’ at least three times in the last minute.”

“Jaune, honey? It’s 9:15, time for your friends to go home!” Mrs. Arc called down the stairs, and her only son took that interjection as an excellent excuse to exit the conversation.

“Hey, Mom?” Jaune called, tripping on a stray book on his way over to the foot of the stairs. He scrambled up them after her while Ren and Nora started gathering their things behind him. “Just twenty more minutes?” he asked, following her into the kitchen.

“Honey, its a school night,” she reminded him, putting leftover casserole in the fridge. “Fifteen after, you know the rules.”

“Yeah, but-”

“But nothing,” she said, a little sharply. “Besides, I just put Violet to bed.” Mrs. Arc raised her tone slightly, using the comment to her son as a reprimand to the four of her daughters that were still awake. Two of them quieted immediately. The twins had the good grace to at least pretend to look sheepish.

“Hey, Dad!” Jaune called into the living room, where Mr. Arc was adjusting the antenna on their television. “Do you think-”

“-I think,” he interrupted, not looking up from what he was doing, “That you should listen to your mother.” Jaune groaned in defeat, and glared when the twins snickered at him.

Downstairs, Ren and Nora were pulling on their coats. They knew from experience that Mrs. Arc wouldn’t let them stay any later on a school night, so they were getting ready to leave before Jaune even got back with confirmation.

“Do you think he actually doesn’t like her?” Nora asked, flipping her hair out from under her collar. “‘Cause like, I don’t even  _ know _ Pyrrha and I can tell she likes him.”

“I don’t know,” Ren replied, zipping up his backpack and hoisting it onto his back. “Maybe you should actually try talking to her before you start coupling her up with him.”

Nora placed a hand to her chest in mock surprise. “Why Ren! Is that  _ sass  _ I hear?”

“It might be,” he replied evasively, smiling softly.

“But honestly,” Nora continued, as if they hadn’t gotten sidetracked. “They would be great together.” She reached up to fix his collar, and neither of them noticed his eyes following her hand, or the way she paused just a moment longer than necessary. “How dumb do two people have to be not to realize they like each other?” Nora asked, glancing up at him.

Ren didn’t reply, and the moment stretched on for an uncomfortably long amount of time.

  
The door at the top of the stairs banged open, and Ren and Nora leapt away from each other like they’d just been caught doing something they shouldn't have. The moment broke, and Jaune called down, “Mom and Dad say you can’t stay later, sorry guys.”

“Yup, that’s what we thought they’d say,” Nora said, trying too hard to act as if nothing had happened while their friend had been gone. “So we got all ready to go ahead of time,” she continued, bouncing up the stairs. She glanced behind her when she reached the top to confirm that Ren was following, and then she made her way to the garage.

“Thank you for letting us come over, Mrs. Arc,” said Ren, passing the woman in the kitchen.

“Oh, anytime,” she replied and gave Nora a passing wave. “Oh, Lie, dear, I’ve got something for you,” she said abruptly, ducking into the fridge to grab something. With her view blocked by the door, she missed the uncomfortable squirm Ren gave when she called him by his first name.

She stood back up and passed him a tupperware over the head of one of her daughters. “Here.”

He peeked under the lid and cocked an eyebrow. “Cookies?”

“I thought Nora might like them.” Mrs. Arc sounded very proud of herself, so he decided not to mention that Nora could not be allowed to eat this much sugar in one sitting. The chocolate chips in them were also a big no after “The Incident.”

Nora didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but if something like that happened again, Ren and Jaune wouldn’t have enough pocket money to make bail.

“Ren, come on!” Said teen jerked his head towards the door when Nora called his name. Ren said a quick thank you to Mrs. Arc and sidled awkwardly past Jaune out the side door into the garage.

“What was taking so long?” Jaune asked, leaning out of the way so his friend could pass. “Everything okay?” Ren just held up the tupperware as an answer, and the blonde rolled his eyes. “Of course. Mom’s very proud. Took her six batches to not burn them.”

“I figured,” Ren replied, shoving the plastic tub in his backpack where it clunked against his books. 

“Nothing your mom makes could be as bad as Ren’s ‘health shakes’,” Nora jabbed from her spot by the door, using her fingers to make quotes.

“Algae contains-”

“-Contains  _ numerous _ spectacular properties, we know.”

“All the same,” he said, swinging one leg over his bike and sitting down, “We’ll see you tomorrow at school, Jaune.”

Nora did the same, and added, “Yeah and get some sleep, you look like shit.”

“Wow thanks Nora, way to make a guy feel loved,” Jaune replied dryly, leaning on the doorframe, “Sadly I’ve got a late night tonight. Still gotta finish up that essay Cardin needed me to write.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and markedly wouldn’t meet the pair’s eyes.

Ren and Nora shared a look. “Jaune, you have to report him, “ advised Ren in a more serious tone than was really necessary, flicking on the headlight affixed to his handlebars.

Jaune nodded noncommittally and kept his eyes on his sneakers as if they held all the answers in the world. “Guys, I’m fine,” he said, sounding more like he was trying to convince himself than convince them. “Besides, it’s not like Cardin being a jerk is exactly news.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Nora argued, pulling on her gloves, “he’s been pushing you around since we met you, and probably before that, too.” She grinned, and met his eyes as he looked up, “And if he doesn’t start leaving you alone this year, we’ll break his legs.”

Jaune rolled his eyes and waved them off. “Yeah yeah, thanks, I’ll be fine,” he said, “Now you should probably leave before my mom finds out you’re still here and freaks out or something.” He was deflecting. He knew it, and he knew they knew it, too. But that was a problem for future Jaune. 

Nora kicked up the kickstand on her bike and sped down the driveway, with a parting, “See you nerds later!” echoing after her. She only narrowly missed colliding with the station wagon parked there. 

Ren started to follow her, but he paused on the threshold of the garage. He looked back to Jaune and said, “You need to tell someone.” 

The blonde startled at the intense and slightly off-putting stare Ren was giving him. Then he slumped a little where he was standing and nodded. “I will, tomorrow,” he promised. 

Ren nodded and smiled a little. “Good,” he said, hiked his backpack a little higher on his shoulders, and started off down the driveway with a soft, “See you tomorrow.”

As he drove off, the flood lights over the garage and the porch lights flicked off twice before finally turning back on. Jaune leaned out of the garage and squinted at them for a moment. “Stupid faulty wiring,” he muttered, as he flipped the switch to turn them off and went back inside. 

Ren pedaled down the road, occasionally passing other jacketed teens and kids walking or biking to and fro. Nora had waited for him for a little while, but soon enough she had peeled away from him to swerve down another road. Fallen leaves had kicked up and swirled in her path, but they settled back down to the ground soon enough.

Before long, Ren was alone, his light shining through the darkness. The beam it cast carved a path down the deserted streets as he pedaled back to his house. He lived alone, so it wasn’t like he would get in trouble if he was late, but the temperature was dropping rapidly and that alone was enough to spur him onwards.

He turned the corner onto his road, passing by the fence that separated the town from the lab. With the cold rising, he might’ve taken whatever punishment the Department of Energy could dish out for his trespassing if it meant he got inside sooner. As it was, he shrugged his backpack a little higher on his shoulders and wished he had a free hand to push his glasses back up on his nose. The fog that was rising was doing his already poor vision no favors.

Then his light turned off.

He hadn’t turned it off, but off it was. Ren glanced down at it to make sure that the bulb hadn’t come loose or something like that. No, it was still there. Probably just burnt out. 

Wait...it was back on. Must’ve just come loose from a bump in the road, and then it settled back to its correct place. He’d take a look at it when he got home. He returned his gaze to the road and-

-What the  _ hell?! _

Before Ren knew what he was doing, he had swerved off the road into the woods. His bike tipped over and he landed sprawled on the ground with a groan. Some idiot had just been  _ standing _ in the middle of the road! 

Some idiot that was wearing no clothes, was pitch black...with limbs too long and fingers that came to sharp points. And its face...Ren could swear...he could swear that it didn’t have a face. Like something out of a freaking horror film.

He could hear it. A growling chittering  _ something _ from where he’d seen the thing in the road. He slowly raised his gaze to where he’d seen it just before he’d swerved. The thing was still there, in all its otherworldly glory. The fog and the darkness were hiding any distinct features, but he saw enough to freak him right the hell out.

As his eyes fell on its indistinct form, he felt himself freeze. Instincts battled within him. One side was telling him to run as far and as fast as he could. The other more logical side was telling him that this thing had appeared out of nowhere and he hadn’t heard or seen it coming. There would be no outrunning this.

All debate went out the window when its growling raised in volume and it turned to face exactly where he’d fallen. 

Screw logic, he was running.

He scrambled to his feet and stumbled backwards a few feet before he turned and high-tailed it out of there. Leaves crunched under his feet, his backpack slapped in a dull rhythm against his back, and the fog rose like a wall in front of him. Ren was already sprinting along the trail that led past the Xiao Long cabin when he realized that he’d left his bike behind. 

With his inhales catching in his throat, and his breath coming out in short panicked gasps, he came to a conclusion: The monster could have his bike, he wasn’t going back.

When he got to his house, he blessed every god he could think of that he hadn’t left his keys behind. Ren slammed them into the keyhole, nearly snapping them off in his haste, and yanked the door open. It ran into the wall hard, but he had no time to check if the wall was damaged. 

The lights were still on in the living room and the kitchen, so at least he had that going for him. As soon as he got through the door, Ren turned and scrambled to hook the chain lock into its track. He doubted the thin brass chain would do much to stop that thing which huge it was, but he could dream couldn’t he?

Nobody was home, as he knew would be the case, but he suddenly found himself wishing that he didn’t live so alone.

Ren skidded, and nearly fell, on the cracking tiles in his kitchen as he rushed to lock the back door. The window in the door was nearly entirely fogged over, but he pressed his nose to it anyway in a desperate attempt to see if the thing was out there.

_ Please don’t be there, please don’t be there, please don’t- _

_ No...oh God please no- _

It emerged from the shadows the trees cast on the leaf strewn ground. It was coming for him, whether it was was walking, or gliding, or whatever he couldn’t tell with the fog. He had a clear enough look at at it now to determine that he was well and truly fucked. 

His eyes widened under his thick framed glasses and he launched himself away from the window with a choked gasp. The time it took for him to get from the window to the phone was too long, but he had to call someone. Who knew what that thing was going to do to him?

Ren snatched the yellow plastic phone from its holder on the wall, and cursed quietly at the rotary dial. He couldn’t call Nora, she didn’t have a phone. He’d just have to pray that  _ anyone _ at Jaune’s house was still awake. 

It connected. Thank  _ Christ _ it connected! “Hello? Hello?!” The cracks running through his voice underlined the fear he felt, and the adrenaline coursing through his veins had sent his voice shaking. If he was shaking hard enough to fall apart, Ren was sure that he’d be crying.

Nothing. No one answered. There was only static. Static and...what the everloving hell was that?! His receiver was picking up static, and some kind of animal screeching or growling. Or more accurately some ungodly combination of the two.

He took an involuntary step away from phone housing, the receiver still clutched in a white-knuckled grasp. Hairs rose on the back of his neck, and Ren inched around the corner so he could see the front door. 

For one god-given moment, there wasn’t anything to be seen through the rippled glass. Then as he stood, stock- still, phone still clutched to his ear, he saw it. An indistinct shape. A shadow passed over the window, blocking out the light of the solitary street light outside and standing taller than any human he knew.

‘The chain lock,’ he thought desperately, eyes locked on the tiny metal chain that might be his last chance.

It-

It was  _ moving?! _

The bit, or whatever it was called, was moving in its track on its own accord. Unlocking the door. As his eyes followed its impossible journey, he had the insane thought that this was hardly fair. That thing was breaking the rules.

What rules those were, he didn’t have the faintest idea, but it was definitely breaking them.

When the bit finally fell out of its track and officially unlocked the door, much to Ren’s never ending disbelief, he dropped the phone and scrambled away from the front door. The phone dropped, but its cord kept it from hitting the floor, and the dial tone it was emitting only served to remind Ren that nobody was coming to help him.

Without a conscious decision of where to go, he found himself in his kitchen. Maybe it was because this was the only other room with light. Maybe it was because this was the furthest room from the front door and the thing he could hear slowly pacing towards him.

Or maybe it was because this was the closest room he could get to that he could get a weapon. Ren dove across the room for the drawer, and rummaged in it for something,  _ anything _ .

His hand closed on a knife, smaller than he would’ve liked, but he didn’t have time to find a better one. Ren stood, shaking so badly it was a miracle he didn’t drop the damn knife, and faced the door. It was the only entrance to the room. The thing would have to come in that way.

The kitchen light flickered. It flashed on and off, making it difficult to see. Not that it would have mattered if he could see, because he could hear it now. That growling, chittering, mess of a noise it made. 

And it was coming from behind him.

He felt his heart drop right out of his chest and settle somewhere down near his feet. Slowly Ren turned, pink-tinged pupils blown wide in fear. The hand holding the knife dropped limply to one side when he saw it.

‘It’s too bright,’ he thought distantly as he gazed at the impossible and unholy creature looming over him. The kitchen light hanging over the table wasn’t flickering anymore, now it was glowing. Glowing brighter than it ever had before, flooding the room with light. It was blinding, and the creature was screeching, or maybe he was screaming.

And then, it was gone. The light went back to its normal level of luminosity, and the sound stopped. The monster was gone, but then again, so was Lie Ren.

The kitchen was empty.


End file.
